


Wrong

by Silence_burns



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Interrogation, M/M, bau, suspect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:35:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23873266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silence_burns/pseuds/Silence_burns
Summary: Your life gets a little more complicated when BAU believes you to be a suspect.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader, Spencer Reid/You
Comments: 10
Kudos: 123





	1. Chapter 1

The interrogation room was small, dusty and horribly hot. And it smelled like sweat, although that could be just you. Did you mention how horrendously hot it was in there?

Tapping your fingers impatiently against the metal table, you waited for anyone to finally come and tell you it was all just a joke. A really bad, really stupid joke. FBI, huh? Right. All the uniforms and guns would cost… too much. Besides, you didn’t have any friends to prank you, so unfortunately, your hopes were flying away on a big, sweaty pigeon that from time to time sat at the other side of a small window. Closed window, of course. Why would anyone think about opening it? You shouted it only about four hundred times.

You were tired of shouting, so you just stuck your middle finger (just to stretch a little bit – you couldn’t even take a walk) to the glass on the left, because there certainly was someone to keep an eye on you. 

* * *

“What do you think?” Hotch asked, coming out of the conference room with a phone in his hand. The woman they had captured, still sat where they placed her a few hours earlier. She seemed to be bored out of her mind.

“I’m not sure, to be honest.” Reid rubbed his cheek, his thoughts rushing one after another in order to understand the woman on the other side of the glass.

“Yeah”, Emily sighed, shaking her head. “It definitely looks like we got _something_ , but I’m not sure if that’s the unsub we were looking for. I mean – just look at her!”

“I looked at her when she threw Morgan to the ground without losing her breath. I am certain she could have restrained our victims.” Hotch raised an eyebrow, not convinced.

“It was actually in self-defense,” Spencer mumbled. ”Morgan was the first thing she saw and he was pointing a gun right at her head. The usual time of reaction in a situation like this is…”

“I don’t think she’s gonna crack anytime soon.” Emily shushed the genius. “And certainly not on her own. Is Rossi coming?”

“He’s still stuck in traffic, but Morgan will be here any minute.”

“I doubt it’s a good idea.” Emily warned her boss. “They are already conflicted. Maybe I should try?”

“No, she may make a mistake. But you may assist if you really want to. Reid, watch her.”

Genius didn’t answer, instead just nodding. Everyone could make a mistake and with every passing hour, he grew to believe that this time, they had made it.

* * *

“Finally,” you growled when the door opened and refreshingly cool air entered the room, but your mood quickly changed back to nasty when you recognized one of the two agents coming in.

“I’m agent Derek Morgan and this is agent Emily Prentiss.” The man sat in front of you in one of the two chairs. The beautiful, dark-haired woman chose to stand to your left.

“I missed you, honey,” you blew him a kiss in order to provoke him, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“So you also know perfectly well why you are here.” The man stated calmly, looking you straight in the eyes.

“Yeah, I heard how you shouted I’m convicted of murder, but guess what – you are wrong.”

“I don’t think so,” the man teased with all-knowing look at his face. “And I don’t only think – I’ve got evidence.”

You chuckled. You knew all too well how police worked.

“So why won’t you use it and just throw me into prison instead of just waiting for me to admit to a crime I didn’t commit? Oh, right. _You are wrong and you know it._ So why won’t you just release me and catch the bad guy?”

“We’ve caught the bad guy,” Morgan said. “And she’s right in front of me. You have been seen in places where the victims disappeared, you had at least three guns in your shitty apartment our people are still searching and you know how to overpower someone much bigger.”

“And you still can’t connect me with those murders. Because I didn’t do them!” you shouted, your anger running through your veins. The woman on your left winced, but Morgan calmed her down with a small gesture.

“I know what you have been through,” he said with a soothing voice, leaning toward you. “Two tours in Iraq? That’s impressive. But the reports don’t show everything. Some men were just too much, weren’t they? Always insolent, always rude.”

“Yeah. You sure understand them very well,” you snickered, the situation was driving you insane.

The silent woman unexpectedly sat down on the other chair. The agents exchanged looks you couldn’t decipher and the tall man left the room.

“Look”, the woman inhaled deeply. “You have to understand our situation. We have to catch the murderer and if you can help us, not only you will be free of charges, but you will also protect people he already chose as his next victims. This beast won’t stop until someone puts him into jail.”

“What do you want from me?” you asked after a while, judging her openly.

“Help. You may know this person. And if we are right about this, he is gonna strike again very soon.”

“Well,” you cracked a smile. “You weren’t even right about me in the first place. I guess you won’t do anything right if I don’t help you, huh? So, when do we start?”


	2. Chapter 2

Official introduction to the team happened in a very awkward atmosphere as you were released from the arrest only hours ago. You could say from the looks on agents’ faces that not everybody was convinced of your innocence. Besides, you were certain they have all searched your life the length and breadth and probably knew more of you than you could even remember. Well, it wasn’t like you were going to work with them for the rest of your life so you didn’t really care. 

Before you stole a cup of water from the machine on the hallway, you were pulled to another room and sat on one of the chairs. The team sat around the table with many documents and folders in their hands. That was the first thing that caught you off guard. The second were the anticipative looks thrown towards you.

You spread out your arms, a questioning look on your face. The young man with a disheveled hairstyle moved a little from your hand.

“Well,” The dark-haired woman in front of you cleared her throat. “What can you tell us about the case, now that you’re not under arrest?”

“That doesn’t change anything, I know what I knew before – I didn’t murder those people.”

“Take a look at those pictures, please.” Hotch gave you a thick folder. “Do you know any of these men?”

“Yeah, this one was my buddy. Pretty shitty one most of the time, but we used to be quite close.”

“Did he have any enemies? Anyone that would want to hurt him this badly?”

You chuckled.

“You mean anyone that happened to know him for longer than two days?”

“It’s not funny,” Hotch said sturdily, with a grim sight. “Nor is it a recreation meeting.”

Emily started to turn around to him, probably to soothe him down, but you were faster. And more tired of everyone’s problems.

“I know,” you said calmly, leaning forward. “But what did you expect? That without cameras I will tell you some secrets only I have ever known? Have you read somewhere in my files that I also work as a fortune-teller?”

The man on your left snorted loudly into the coffee he was drinking, splashing the liquid on his shirt. He immediately turned red, when all eyes turned on him and you had to hold back a laughter at his embarrassment. He quickly got out of the room, murmuring apologizes and not looking anyone in the eyes. Morgan rubbed his face, exhaling deeply.

Emily stood up, taking the situation into her hands.

“Okay, so, look. We really need some help. Maybe we should give her the details of the case? No one is going to move on this until she has a full view, right?” She pleaded to her boss, doing her best to control everything. 

You did appreciate all the effort. She really tried, even though it was clear everyone in that room was exhausted and off limits because of the case. You felt a tingling of remorse caused by your behavior, but you suppressed it as much as possible.

“Yeah. Maybe I’ll find something,” you said hesitantly, trying to recover somehow. “If I was your main suspect, I may know this guy.”

Hotch nodded, giving Emily permission to guide you as he went out, pulling out his phone. You remembered that Emily said the team usually also included a “Rossi”. You already got to known Morgan, you’ve seen “JJ” on TV so you concluded the embarrassed man with coffee was Spencer. He didn’t come back so you stayed alone with Emily when Morgan went to question someone else.

“Tough day, huh?” Emily smiled softly, going through all the files with you, that they collected earlier.

“You’ve got no idea,” you sighed, reading some graphic description of post-mortem wounds left on the victims. “And it’s still not getting any better.”

“I’m really sorry for what happened to you…”

“Nah, it’s nothing. It’s not my first rodeo with the law system, believe me…”

“I mean in the army.”

“Oh,” words before your eyes stopped making any sense as you stared on the page blankly for a brief moment. You shook it off, not letting anyone know the turmoil within yourself. “It’s okay.”

“Have you found anything?”

“What- Oh, yes, I mean, I know a few army deserters jealous of their comrades’ success, but I can’t point a finger at anyone at this point…”

“I’m sorry for-,” your words have been interrupted by the return of the unlucky guy with a good sense of humor. Spencer reddened again when he spotted you, clearly reminding him of his accident. 

He looked like he was going to flee with some poor excuse, but Emily was faster and brought him into the room, firmly closing the door behind his back, effectively cutting off his only escape route. With a bright smile on her face, she led him to a map hanging on the wall near the window with many colored lines and circles.

“You’re back at just the right time,” Emily praised him. “I was just going to call you to give our lovely friend some more information about the locations of the bodies and suspicious places.”

“I-I, sure, I can do this…” he gulped, clearly avoiding any eye contact with you and it didn’t go unnoticed. You and Emily exchanged knowing looks behind his back.

“So I’ve heard the bodies were found here and here,” you pointed your fingers to the two bars you knew very well. It was such z shame the bodies were left in the alleys behind them – people stopped coming almost immediately after the news publicized the information and you wondered if the owners would have to close them for good.

“Yes. The next one was there, also left in the rarely used alley. All the victims had a very strict schedule and were often seen in those places after 8p.m. All of them had been also seen at ‘Roxy’s’ on March 12th and we believe this is our connection, but none of the witnesses present there at this time remembers anything important… Is everything okay?” Spencer stopped talking, looking at you with a confusion on his face.

You shook your head, eyes wide open.

“I know the guy and if I’m right, we’re all screwed.” 


	3. Chapter 3

The silence that fell after your words was deafening. You could hear your own blood pumping through your veins, rushing with adrenaline. You could be wrong, but it didn’t seem possible. Anybody could make a mistake, but sometimes being right was far worse.

“What… What do you mean?” Prentiss stuttered, shocked by the drastic change in your attitude.

You looked at her, at first not realising that she was serious, but then you remembered where you have been. It was not the desert. There was no sand, no blood. At least not yet. You cleared your throat.

“Jon was… Jon is a monster,” You said with utter certainty. “You need more men, more patrols on the streets, you need to search through every valley, every corner…”

“Wait a minute, slow down,” The woman stopped you, sitting you down on a chair Spencer brought up with a deep frown on his face.

You took a deep breath, rubbing your face. The visions flashing behind your eyes were all too vivid to forget them once they got out.

“You may talk to us, we need every piece of information,” Spencer assured you softly, sitting on the chair next to you.

You nodded. 

“There was… There was this one mission, back in Iraq,” You managed to say with your head still down. “I was injured, so I stayed in the camp. They had sent an usual team, nine members, to the city. There was an informant that was supposed to tell us something important, but we lost the communication via radio, so they sent them. I knew all of them, I have known about their families, I have known the names of their kids. And they never came back – all except of one.”

“And that was Jon,” Prentiss guessed.

You snorted madly, pure hatred blazing in your eyes.

“There was an attack and that part is true. At that time I was sitting in the office, tuning the broken radio and I caught their frequency. I’d heard their commands, the gunshots, I could recall their positions. Do you know what I’d heard after all of that ended?” You raised your head, looking them straight in the eyes. “’Jon, where is the team?’”

“I don’t think I understand…” Spencer frowned, a dreadful suspicion growing in his head.

“He killed them,” You almost growled. “Five of them have been killed by the opposite formation and the rest by Jon. And you know what the tops did? They gave him a fucking medal of bravery, because no one believed my words. Great soldier, very skilled, the best one we had – I’d heard that for weeks and I almost vomited every time I heard his name. At least he got discarded few years later.”

“That was the reason you left the army?” Spencer guessed, recalling a very laconic note in your files.

“One of them,” You confirmed, coming back to reality. 

“So what do we do now?” Prentiss asked, and you were grateful for changing the subject. You didn’t want to talk about your personal life. “Do you know where we can find him?”

“No, but I can ask my buddies. Maybe they have seen him somewhere. For now, I can give you a rough description if you need it,” You shrugged, trying to hide a shiver that ran through you.

“That’s a good idea, I’ll inform the team,” Prentiss rushed from the room, leaving you and Spencer alone.

“I need my phone,” You stated. He looked at you without understanding. “You took it away.”

“Oh, right,” He stood up quickly, a small blush reddening his cheeks as he went to the lockers with files and evidence as you supposed. He searched in the big boxes stuffed with things, trying to hide his face from you.

“What are you going to do when you find Jon?” You asked when he handed you your phone. You unpacked it from the foil. “I was serious when I said you need more men. If he gets wind of a trap, it will end bloody.”

“We’re still not sure if he’s our unsub,” Spencer objected but there was no assurance in his voice.

“But you should still be prepared.”

“They will be.”

You shook your head, giving up the conversation. You searched the old contacts, starting to call everyone you have known from the army. There weren’t many numbers.

Faking a good mood and small-talking drained you from all the energy quicker than you ever expected. False smiles seemed to carve on your face. You wanted to scrub them off, but you still had to do your work. 

Spencer tried to give you as much space as he could without exiting the room, which he couldn’t do because you were still not clear from suspicions and he was instructed to keep an eye on you. Talking with old ‘friends’ made you visibly uncomfortable and he felt sorry that you had to do it. From the look on your face he had seen that the first conversations didn’t go well. The frustration was a natural reaction given your position, but it didn’t stop you from still trying to reach at least a few more people, pulling all the strings you have had on them. Spencer admired your engagement and stubbornness. 

After two more coffees and half an hour of coping with people’s moods, you suddenly found someone valuable. You gestured to Spencer vigorously, turning up the volume on your phone to let him hear too.

“So when did you see him last time?” You asked casually, not letting your emotions show in your voice even though the excitement was overwhelming. 

“Geez, I don’t know, somewhere near the river I guess…,” The man said lazily, laughing at something in the background.

“I have to give him back the money, Charles,” You pushed. “He said he needed it but then his phone died, I guess. Come on, Charles, you need to help me. You know how he is when he’s mad.”

“Yeah, right… I’m not saying anything, but you should probably check the Marty’s bar at the river. Jon was freaking out lately so better hurry up if you don’t want to piss him off more…”

You didn’t let him finish, disconnecting with a satisfied huff. You looked at Spencer with happiness in your eyes, still not believing you finally got any information. Spencer was already dialing a number, waiting for a response.

“You need to have as many men as you can get,” You mouthed to him. “Jon is crazy.”

He nodded, speaking to his teammates. 

“Yes, yes we are,” He said to someone. “I can get there in less than thirty, wait there.”

Spencer stood up, moving to the door and you shadowed him. He stopped, not letting you go. 

“You can’t,” he said apologetically. “You aren’t an officer, you cannot enter that place…”

“I know Jon and he knows me,” You replied stubbornly. “He is armed and wants to go down with as many men as he can possibly get. If I can get to him before he realizes the police are there, I may stop the massacre.”

“We still don’t know if he even is there, please, just stay…”

“It will be too late!” You shouted suddenly, shocking both of you. “I couldn’t help my men in Iraq back then and now you’re telling me to repeat the same thing? I won’t. You may put me in custody, you may lock me up, but I will get away anyway. Time’s running out, Spence. Are you ready to have those people’s lives on your shoulders?”

He opened his mouth to say something, but the words were all wrong and bereft of certainty. He could lie that everything was under control and that the FBI and local police department was going to do just fine, but at the same time he was fully aware of how rough this particular job was. They couldn’t find the right man for over a week and that resulted in five deaths. How many more were there going to be? How many more could they risk without suffering from scorching stings of remorse?

He looked down, not being able to look you in the eyes. You were free of any doubts and ready to sacrifice your safety. You were glowing in the thick darkness surrounding you. 

“You need to wear a bulletproof vest,” He said finally, making his way out. You followed him, a wide smile appearing on your lips. “And remember, I’m not authorized to make this kind of decision, so agent Hotchner may still forbid you to do this.”

“Then I will let you do this your way, knowing that I did everything I could,” You replied without thinking. Spencer didn’t answer, hoping for it to happen.

* * *

The bar was almost empty; lazy tunes were playing in the background. The thick cloud of cigarettes’ smoke was irritating your nose, but you were afraid of sneezing. Something was electrifying the atmosphere; it was raising the hair on your neck and arms and making your heart skip a beat every few steps. Dryness in your throat felt like razors. You saw him.

After leaving the army, Jon staled visibly, becoming a completely different person than merely years ago. The moment your vision met, you knew he was the killer. His cold eyes glued to yours.

“I didn’t think I would ever meet you again,” He said casually, pushing his half-drunk beer away.

“I suppose fate is full of unexpected events,” You forced yourself to keep moving towards him even though every fibre in your body was yelling for you to stop. It could work. Jon didn’t consider you a threat, you could see it in his slow, sloppy movements.

“Not all of them are unexpected.” Jon raised an eyebrow in the same manner he used to years ago.

In the corner of your eye you saw a movement that was not supposed to happen. Your impulse was faster than your thinking. You jumped forward, just at the moment Jon pushed his hand under his coat. 

You gripped a cold, freezing metal when you felt two small strikes on your stomach, but you didn’t hear anything for a while when everything slowed down. You noticed the boiling anger on Jon’s face and many people rushing through the door behind his back, but you didn’t hear any screams nor shots, pushing yourself into Jon’s firm body, not letting him pull a grenade with his second hand. 

The world became cold and dark when many bodies pulled you away, almost covering Jon completely. Someone appeared in your sight, but you didn’t recognize him. The silence was making you drift away from annoying coldness and lights hurting your eyes. 

Feeling fulfilled, you let yourself collapse into the soft nothingness.


	4. Chapter 4

Annoying beeping was hammering through the thick layers of sleep. With every moment passing, it was becoming more and more unpleasant. You tried to bring your voice out, but nothing came out of your mouth. You huffed heavily, unsticking your eyelids after the third try. The light was brighter than a laser and you growled in frustration when it hurt you. Something shifted on your right and you noticed a man standing there with a worried look on his face.

“How do you feel? Do you want me to call a nurse?” he asked, and you searched in your memory for his name.

“Reid…?” you asked, almost immediately starting to cough when your dry throat refused to cooperate.

He rushed to the small table beside your bed and you noticed that you were in a hospital. Spencer helped you sit up and gave you a glass of water, almost shaking himself. He tried to hide it, but you could see the dark circles under his eyes and you could feel the stress surrounding him.

“What happened?” you asked when you made sure you could talk.

“What do you remember?”

“Um… Jon? He was armed. And then darkness…”

“Yes, he had a grenade and a gun with which he shot you twice. Jon wanted to blow up the bar, Charles must have warned him so he was ready for a trap. If you didn’t stop him, everyone would…”

“I told you,” you tried to smile, but it ended up only hurting your face.

“Yeah, you were right…”

You furrowed your eyebrows.

“Spencer? What’s wrong…?”

He shook his head, sitting on a plastic chair. He couldn’t dare to look you in the eyes, not after everything that had happened. Even after all the days that have passed since the bar incident, he could still recall every second, every pang of guilt he has felt…

You touched his hand lightly, almost like you weren’t there. Five more minutes without an ambulance and you wouldn’t be.

“What’s wrong…?”

“I can’t get rid of those images – all the blood, the gunshots, you lying on the floor…”

“But I’m here and everything’s fine,” you said, ruffling his hair.

“But what if…”

You shushed him, giving him time to calm down.

“It doesn’t matter. I am here and I have done a pretty amazing job, right? You can’t deny it. I was born to put my life in danger and shook it off, maybe not without a scratch, but…”

“Everyone says that until they die.”

That silenced you, making you give up on smiling. You could see his pain and you understood it more than he could ever think. You survived all those years in the army, seeing your friends walk away and never come back. It left scars more painful than the physical ones, but it couldn’t break you. That was all that mattered. That you still cared and haven’t give up trying to protect as many as you could.

“So we better make sure those idiots don’t die on our watch,” you said, watching the disbelief building in his warm eyes, now red and swollen.

And then, when you almost thought you had failed, you saw a glimmer of a smile on his face.

“Yeah. Someone has to do it right.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my oldest fics, so please forgive any mistakes. I just thought it's finally time to upload it on AO3. Please leave a comment if you still enjoyed it!
> 
> You can find me on AO3 or silence-burns.tumblr.com.


End file.
